When Olympia Dukakis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Rose, Cher's wry mom in Moonstruck (1987), few of her new legions of adoring fans realized she was a 25-year acting veteran. The cousin of 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, the actress was born to Greek immigrant parents on Jan. 20, 1931, in Lowell, Mass., and began acting onstage after attending Boston University.Dukakis made her film debut in Lilith (1964) and, five years later, played Dustin Hoffman's mother in John and Mary. While earning two "Obies" for her off-Broadway work, she made small film appearances in the 1970s and '80s (Made for Each Other, Death Wish, The Wanderers and The Idolmaker).
After Moonstruck, Dukakis enjoyed prominent roles in Steel Magnolias, Dad, Look Who's Talking, The Cemetery Club and television's "Tales of the City." She continues to teach drama at New York University.
Mr. Holland's OpusIn 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired... Read More
The Librarian: Return to MinesIn this highly anticipated sequel to TNT's popular action blockbuster, Noah Wyle returns as Flynn Carsen, the slightly nerdy librarian whose double life as an archaeologist leads to heart-pounding adventure and intrigue. Flynn's sober academic life is interrupted when he's called upon to once again... Read More
And Never Let Her GoBased on a true story, this made-for-TV crime drama follows the search for the mysteriously vanished Anne Marie Fahey (Kathryn Morris), secretary and mistress of powerful Delaware attorney Thomas Capano (Mark Harmon). As details of her kinky affair with Capano begin to surface, Detective Frank... Read More
Further Tales of the CityThis sequel to More Tales of the City finds Mary Ann (Laura Linney) struggling to advance in her new career on television, while Michael (Paul Hopkins) is playing the field after his break-up with Jon (Billy Campbell). After her divorce, Prue (Mary Kay Place) finds comfort in a mysterious stranger.... Read More
3 NeedlesThis intense social drama from writer-director Thom Fitzgerald chronicles the spread of AIDS on three continents -- Asia, Africa and North America -- and the wrenching, controversial choices that three sets of people make to cope with the disease. An all-star cast including Stockard Channing, Lucy... Read More
